Skip to main content
It’s a gorgeous spring afternoon. A Friday. You’re on a cozy couch in wine country in the Willamette Valley in front of a picture window looking out over tidy rows of grapevines and Douglas fir trees. Now you’re sipping from a hot pink glass of 2022 dolcetto pinot blanc called “Rainbow Juice.” OK, fine, now two 15-week-old Bengal kittens, who cost $5,000 each for all their leopard-print glamour, are crawling all over you, pawing at you to play. Is this some version of paradise? (Cat allergies notwithstanding.)
This scene, called the “Kittens and Wine Experience,” is all happening on the regular at Artist Block Tasting Room in Dundee. Artist Block is a 2-year-old winery and art gallery founded by winemaker and visual artist Anna Sweet. “Kittens and Wine” was born out of necessity. The tasting room already had a resident Bengal, Andy Warhol, who was used to schmoozing with customers. So when Sweet got two new kittens, she decided to socialize them at Artist Block and call it an event.
Sweet had no idea how popular it would become. Since posting the event on social media, she has booked 500 wine tastings with her new kittens, Edward and Jacob. (Nonmillennials, that’s a reference to the two Twilight heartthrobs.)
“I love creating experiences for people, and the more obscure and weird and fun it can be, the better,” Sweet says.
While Andy Warhol will stay at Artist Block indefinitely, Edward and Jacob will finish up their tour of snuggling duty on July 1 when they move into Sweet’s house.
“Kittens and Wine” is part of a larger vision at Artist Block to clear away the stodginess that permeates the wine industry. In addition to enjoying wine flights with Edward and Jacob, Artist Block guests have recently been able to get tattoos at a weekend flash event, have bumps of caviar—yep, right on your hand, if you want— alongside their tasting, or eat dinner at the winery’s new speakeasy-style restaurant in Newberg, Alpha Bravo.
Since Artist Block opened in 2023, more established founders have come to check out the new space and told Sweet she is just what the Willamette Valley needs. Translation: someone attracting young people to wine country.
Jared Etzel, founder of Rodeo Hills, just five minutes down the road from Artist Block, says what Sweet is doing is indeed “great” for Oregon wine country. A mature wine region needs a diversity of experiences and wine styles, Etzel says. (He grew up in the scene as the son of Mike Etzel of Beaux Frères.) Sweet has “quickly gotten a loyal following,” he says.
The art helps. The tasting room is filled with fun originals, including a 3-by-4-foot acrylic painting of the Notorious B.I.G., a mosaic of Audrey Hepburn blowing a bubble, and an installation of dozens of Sweet’s Dotnut doughnut sculptures.
When Sweet originally got into wine, both in the New York art world and while living in San Francisco, she found it intimidating because she didn’t understand the terminology. Soil composition, residual sugars, acidity and phenolics (wine chemistry)? It was all flying over her head.
“The way that wine has been presented in our culture is, it’s only for the rich, it’s something that you’ll never understand, you have to be a billionaire businessman to be able to order off the menu,” she says.
But she remained attracted to wine and winemaking because it was like “artwork in a glass,” she says. Over the past six years, Sweet has done a deep-dive in the industry, taking the Wine & Spirit Education Trust class in Napa Valley, traveling to tasting rooms in Argentina, farming a vineyard for a year with her husband, and working at other tasting rooms. It was a lot of work just to not feel intimidated anymore.
“I just want a place where you can enjoy this beautiful, rare thing but not feel like you’re not enough. You’re not smart enough, you’re not rich enough, you’re not educated enough to truly participate and really enjoy it and feel comfortable and at ease and at home.”
GO: Artist Block Tasting Room & Gallery, 9650 NE Fox Lane, Dundee, 971-387-6695, artistblockwine.com. 10 am–5:30 pm daily. 21+.